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Subscribe to RSSIn his first interview since losing the 2012 presidential election, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney criticized President Obama’s early second-term performance and told Fox News Sunday that he’s still very much stung by his defeat.
“I look at what’s happening right now -- I wish I were there,” Romney told Chris Wallace, in a taping conducted last week in California. “It kills me not to be there, not to be in the White House doing what needs to be done.”
Related: Boehner: 'I don't think anyone quite understands' how sequester gets resolved
Romney criticized President Obama’s handling of the budget showdown engulfing Washington, saying, “We don’t have to have gridlock settings one after the other, on issue after issue.”
Romney, who campaigned largely on a promise that he would cut the debt and federal spending, said that the current debate over the nation’s fiscal course, including the so-called “sequester” cuts, represents a missed opportunity. “I see this as this huge opportunity, and it’s being squandered by politics, by people who are more interested in a political victory than they are in doing what’s right for the country. And it’s very frustrating.”
Former Gov. Mitt Romney calls the controversial statement "unfortunate" and admitted that it was "harmful" to his campaign.
His wife, Ann Romney, conceded that she was not fully over the election defeat. "It would have been much better for America, I believe, in my heart if he had been there right now." When asked what she thought about President Obama’s campaign, Mrs. Romney told Wallace “I think it was a winning campaign. It worked.” Wallace asked her if she thought the president’s campaign was fair, and she quickly responded that she did not, and that Obama had distorted public perception about her husband, who she called an “exceptional, wonderful person… that really, truly cared about the American people.”
Romney also allowed he made some mistakes during the course of his campaign. One issue that plagued him at the end of his run was the release of a secretly recorded video showing him speaking at a fundraiser, in which he said that 47% of Americans would vote for the president no matter what, as they were “dependent on the government.” He told Wallace that the statement was “very harmful” and “not what I believe.”
House Speaker John Boehner tells Meet the Press moderator that the House will act on a continuing resolution to keep the government open.
“There’s no question that hurt and did real damage to my campaign,” Romney admitted.
At the same time, however, Romney said that the “attractiveness” of the president’s health care plan was “a feature that we underestimated, particularly among” low-income voters.
The couple were asked what it has been like to be out of the public eye, without the massive staff, security and press entourage that was with Romney's campaign at every move. Ann Romney called the abrupt change an "adjustment, but it’s one that I think we did well."
Romney is making his first public address in two weeks, at C-PAC, a conservative group's annual conference in Washington, D.C. He told Fox that while he was not expecting the Republican party to necessarily hang on of his every word going forward, he does still want to be involved. “I’m not going to disappear,” he said. “I care about America. I care about the people that can’t find jobs.”
The interview was filmed at the home of Romney's youngest son, Craig, in the San Diego area. Craig and his wife, Mary, just welcomed newborn twins, Winston and Eleanor, two weeks ago, bringing the total number of grandchildren to twenty, a reality that was on the former candidate’s mind when discussing current events and his future plans.
“I care about my twenty grandkids – the kind of America they’re going to have. And sitting in the sidelines when so much is at stake is just not in my nature,” Romney told Wallace.
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I couldn't stand to listen to Romney when he was running and I can't stand to listen to him now....Go back to California or where ever Mitt...the cosmic joke is your party wouldn't insist on a Sequester if you had won.... but the country still would have been in terrible trouble.
Wolfeboro N.H.
My family shares a summer home there.
Thank freakin' God he wasn't elected.
mitt - please go back to the dustbin
I love all the busters posting comments hating on a player who succeeded in the game. None of you bums deserve anything in the land of opportunity. Go to Europe and go squawk about money you are entitled to. What's next? We gotta hand out A's to your rat kids so they don't feel bad too. Go tie your tubes and get vasectomies. Save the world from your burden of an existence. Then we won't need more taxes to get the insects to multiple and ask for more care. You can't succeed so that makes you the failure. Most you can't even make your own budget like the hippie Dems. However, no problem buying cars and smartphones because you want luxury and act rich. If you are so anti-rich, go live in hut and STFU. Let the winners win, and the weak self-deport.
Exactly, not getting a job you've tried for 12 years to get is SO successful!!!
Um.... so if the rich scream for entitlements, you're happy to give them. But the poor are just moochers who are hustling their next handout. You are aware that Rush Limbaugh's a fictional character, aren't you?
none of us bums deserve squat? wtf is the matter with you?
He's got to be kidding isn't he? Is he trying out to see if he's good enough for the Jay Leno show?
Where does he wish he was? REALITY?
not going to happen. too far gone.
Romney's 47% comment was the most honest one of the entire election. Obama supporters are very happy that they can get a majority of people to gang up on and steal from "the rich".
ok @BillyBob, who ganging up stealing from who??
One reason companies are so profitable is that they're paying employees less than they ever have as a share of GDP. And that, in turn, is one reason the economy is so weak: Those "wages" are other companies' revenue.
In short, our current system and philosophy is creating a country of a few million overlords and 300+ million serfs." Blodget
"There has been class warfare going on," Buffett, 81, said in a Sept. 30 interview with Charlie Rose on PBS. It's just that my class is winning. And my class isn't just winning, I mean we're killing them."
"While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks," Buffett wrote in a Sunday New York Times Op-ed.
America is glad you're not there Mitt. Just whine on Faux News and be sure to give a good speech to the teabaggers at C Pac. Real leaders like Christie will be back in NJ doing their job being thankful you're not "there"
Still the egotistical ass...e he was when he lost the election. Apparently humility is not in his vocabulary. Just because he apparently cheated the government out of millions does not make him an economist.
Until Mitt and the GOP realize that blaming their defeat on Obama and the Democrats playing "Santa Claus" and giving so many people free stuff is missing the point, they are doomed. Unfortunately, it also dooms the country because, with that mind-set, no actual debate or compromise is possible. It's like a salesman blaming his poor sales on his competitor being a better salesman. Maybe, just maybe, the competitor has a product that people like better. Sell us a better product, and maybe we'll buy it.
Romney already said what he would do as President. His answer to a sequester would be applying 100% of the spending cuts to social security, medicare, and medicaid. He would go further by increasing military defense spending by expanding Afghanistan and he would be cutting more taxes for the wealthy and corporations. In short we would be more screwed than ever before.
Exactly!
Mitt was going to "gift" the rich with capital gains tax of 0%.
And "gift" the Military Industrial Complex with an additional $2 trilllion (read: no-bid, blank-check contracts to Haliburton) Incredulously Mitt had Cheney as his "senior" Defense advisor.
Of course the middle-class would be given a lecture by Mitt on what he would do to them.
Mittens - You're a tax cheat and have a record of destroying companies and outsourcing American jobs. Please just go away! You 1%ers have gotten more than your fair share of tax breaks and then turned around and invested the money in offshore accounts. Shame on you!
Again, just go away! The last time a Republican like you got elected, we got into two unpaid wars and a surplus turned into a mountain of debt! Just GO AWAY!
Now the GOP wants the poor and middle class to pay for those wars and funnel more tax cuts to the wealthy.
No one cares what Romney thinks any more than they care what I think. He's done.
B7, what a silly statement. It looks like a lot of citizens care what Mitt thinks.
On the Planet of T Bag where alternative realities abound, extreme right-wing white-dominated Republican TBaggers still believe Mitt is ahead by 7 points. Lol.
owen,
He is entertainment. That is why he is on Fox. Just like Palin was for 4 years. Move on. Get your party fixed. Give us Democrats a choice on a reality TV experience.
He's worried about his grandkids--seriously???? Are they going to be part of the 47% that he doesn't care about? That would be rich. I hope Mutt Robme and Botox Annie and the rest of them stay the hell out of Washington. Further, I hope that all voters realize in 2016 that there are more parties listed on the ballot besides Dems and Reps.
Reading these articles and comments is becoming mind numbing. Same old same old. Republicans accuse Democrats of making people dependent and spending too much money. Democrats accuse Republicans of favoring the rich and not caring about everybody else. Would someone PLEASE come up with something else? Meanwhile, NOTHING of substance gets accomplished. A pox on both their houses.
King Obama is rich also......
He is not a king, he is the President of the United States. Obama did not use the Mormon Tax Exemption status to avoid paying his fair share of taxes either. Obama did not buy a company, take out a huge debt on it, export those jobs to another country, get a tax credit for doing it, and then declare bankruptcy on the backs of the American Taxpayer. That's what ROBME did.
Was it legal? YES, was it MORAL. NO
" Obama did not buy a company, take out a huge debt on it, export those jobs to another country, get a tax credit for doing it, and then declare bankruptcy on the backs of the American Taxpayer. That's what ROBME did."
Sounds remarkably like Obama.
He thinks he's a King that's for sure.
Greg-2505403
Source? Please by all means post a source that it sounds like Obama. :)
Hardcoffeeat6am
Umn no. That's your poor perception of Obama. He doesn't believe he is a king.
I voted for Obama twice, and would again if the GOP selects another pathetic candidate. Obama has made mistakes, but considering how the Republicans have been, Obama is and remains the right choice amongst the choices we have.
The man has a right to his opinion, as do all of the folks on here. Apparently he can do it without throwing mud.
Ya get what you pay for.
"HOW GREAT THOU ART"--There is a Mormon song by that name. Romney wishes he was there ruling over the 47% and ensuring that the rich don't pay a dime more. That is what this crazy talk is all about.
MOST AMERICANS--including most Republicans--would say to him, buzz off, fool. This man has no class and utterly living in a bubble of foolishness. Instead of the White House, he should be prosecuted for tax evasion and put in the nation's biggest houe, the prison.
Mitt, nobody wanted you, so just stay away
Aw Fay -
I hope you lose EVERYTHING.
Fay, you are a slow learner. We are trying to patent with people like you.
@owen
"you are a slow learner. We are trying to patent" ??
Who's a slow learner @owen? Lol.
Extreme, right-wing, white-dominated, Republican TBaggers are a hoot! Lol.
I wish he were here, too.
Time is telling what a mistake O has been.
Just ask a DC reporter -- but you have to ask him/her on the QT, lest the O henchmen/women set into action.
PLS NOTE: My comment did not contain any of the ugly, personal-attack statements as many of the above.
I wish you were to! The Democrats not going to cut anything because that's how they acquire their voters, putting money in their hands. Turns out Romney was right about that 47%. 48% voted for him, ALL with their hands out. This has been going on since Franklin D. Roosevelt starting and Social Security.
I wish Mitt were there too...although every Dem in the LAND would blame Republicans for this mess.
How about NOW, Dems? Will you now admit you screwed up?
Mitt could have done better than the Obama. A 100 others could have done better. When Obama was elected, America got what they foolishly deserve.
sore looser. you shouldn't be a raceist. the american public was able to see clearly through your pnony. clint eastwood sure didn't help your cause. maybe if you had surrounded your campaign with a more diverse crowd, you would be sitting in the white house. now take the beating and move on because america is no longer the raceist they were 10 years ago.
Obama's presidency is evidence that racism is still rampant in America. There are a lot of Obama voting racist!
Go away, Mitt. Your house with the car elevator, Kolob - anywhere you like. Just GO AWAY!